


Her Own Beloved

by Akumeoi



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Angst with a Happy Ending, Cute Ending, F/M, Identity Reveal, Misunderstandings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-05
Updated: 2019-11-05
Packaged: 2021-01-23 06:50:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,923
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21315976
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Akumeoi/pseuds/Akumeoi
Summary: Marinette has finally achieved her dream of moving in with her boyfriend Adrien Agreste. But something seems fishy in their relationship, and Marinette fears that Adrien could be preparing to break up with her. As usual, her problems have an unconventional solution.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Comments: 32
Kudos: 421





	Her Own Beloved

**Author's Note:**

> Features the Piña Colada song. If you're unfamiliar, links in the end notes.

“I take back everything good I ever said about my master. He is an idiot, as well as being a terrible Chat Noir.”

Tikki shook her head sadly, not bothering to argue with Plagg. “I really thought they would have figured it out by now. My master is so smart and clever. I can’t understand what’s taking so long.”

“Why can’t we just tell them each other’s names,” Plagg moaned. “I’m sick of all this pining and moaning. It’s disgusting, yeuch!”

“You know it’s against the rules!” Tikki said, shooting Plagg a look that told him that if he wanted to try anything he’d have to get past her. “Don’t you feel bad for them? They’re just so miserable at the moment. I hope it doesn’t take much longer...”

⁂

Flashing red and blue lights stilled and sirens quieted as Ladybug and Chat Noir stood on a rooftop and watched the aftermath of the scene of their latest victory. They had recently come into the ability to stay transformed indefinitely, and Marinette was savouring it. Papillon’s successor was going to be in big trouble soon. As the last police car moved out, Chat Noir turned to Ladybug. 

“Won’t you stay a little while, My Lady?” he said with one of his oh-so-charming smiles. Marinette smiled back. As their powers had evolved, so had their dynamic. She still ribbed him mercilessly and he still made bad jokes, but Marinette was no longer so insecure that she couldn’t enjoy a bit of a friendship with him, a genuine one. She was willing to admit that Chat Noir was not just her partner, but one of her best friends as well. As long as they didn’t get too specific in the details they shared about their lives and risk compromising their identities, she was happy to spend time with him.

But maybe not just now...

“I have to go home,” she said, shaking her head. “This little de-akumatisation wasn’t in my schedule, so my boyfriend will be wondering where I went.” Even as she said it, her stomach clenched. Adrien would be wondering about it _if_ he was still at home – he almost always took advantage of her absences to flee their shared apartment. 

“Yeah, I know what you mean,” Chat Noir said sheepishly. “My girlfriend doesn’t like me going out all the time to fight Papillon either. Not that she knows what I’m doing.”

Marinette was never going to stop being thrilled that Chat Noir had stopped pursuing her and gotten a girlfriend of his own. It had made their relationship a lot more comfortable. But it was a bit of a relief to hear that she wasn’t the only person with relationship troubles. She had yet to solve the problem of explaining her frequent disappearances with any excuse other than “I’m going sketching.”

“I really wish I could just tell him I’m Ladybug,” she confided in Chat Noir. Bowing to the inevitable, she sat down on the roof and he seated himself beside her. “I... it would make a lot of things easier.”

This time she wasn’t able to stop herself from feeling the flash of pain she always felt lately when she thought about her relationship with Adrien. He had been so loving and supportive when they first moved in together six weeks ago. Then, strange things had started happening. At first, he was always there to greet her with a smile (or sleepy kiss) when she got home, but for the past few weeks she’d been always returning to an room, an empty bed. Sometimes when she cuddled with him, he’d fake-cough and use it as an excuse to get up and refuse physical contact for a little while. He spent a lot of money on fancy cheeses and such, but she never saw him eat them or offer them to her, so they must have been gifts for somebody else. And that wasn’t even touching on the implausible excuses he gave her for all of these weird behaviours.

“You seem upset, My Lady,” Chat Noir said, drawing her out of her reverie with a gentle hand on her shoulder. 

She took a deep breath. “I think my boyfriend might be... losing interest in me,” she admitted miserably, feeling her throat tighten.

Chat was silent for a moment, his thumb stroking her shoulder in a gesture of comfort. “I wish I could reassure you, but I’m in a bad way myself,” he said. 

“What’s wrong, Chat? Maybe I can help.”

Chat shook his head, a grim look on his face. His hand dropped from her shoulder, but she took it and gave it a brief squeeze. As Chat flashed her a grateful smile, Marinette wondered, not for the first time, what Adrien would make of her physical closeness with someone who used to have a crush on her, even if their relationship was now completely platonic. Add that to the pile of things Adrien didn’t know that she couldn’t begin to explain to him.

“Well, she’s not the kind of girl to cheat,” Chat said, “or at least, I thought she wasn’t. But lately I’ve been wondering. I can’t help it.” He gave her a serious look that told Marinette he was referencing the insecurities he’d developed from growing up with a distant father. “It’s just, she goes out at night without me all the time.”

“_We_ go out at night,” Marinette pointed out.

Shaking his head, Chat said, “Yeah, but we’re a special case. And I know neither of us is going to night clubs or anything. I have no idea where she goes. She gives me the weirdest excuses.”

Marinette thought of Adrien and felt her throat tighten again. 

“I don’t know,” Chat said gloomily. “Maybe relationships between heroes and civilians just aren’t meant to work out.”

The suggestion was uncomfortably close to Marinette’s own thoughts this past week, and when Chat said it her calm instantly evaporated. Thoughts that she had been trying to keep at bay crowded into her mind, and she felt her tears begin to threaten to fall. 

“Wha – hey, My Lady, don’t cry,” Chat said in alarm. 

“I’ve loved my boyfriend since I was thirteen,” Marinette wailed. “This is my dream relationship. I can’t just _lose_ him! I love him so much, Chat. I love him.” With a sniff, she wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. 

“Hey, hey,” Chat Noir said gently. “I shouldn’t have said that. I’m sure you’ll work it out. For every problem there’s a solution, right?”

“But you’re right,” Marinette said in a whisper. “We can’t go on like this, and I _don’t_ know how to fix it aside from telling him I’m Ladybug. Maybe I should let him go first before he loses his trust in me forever. It’s not like I haven’t thought about it before.”

“Don’t give up now,” Chat Noir said in dismay. “Maybe there’s nothing wrong and you should just talk to him about it.”

“I won’t give up,” Marinette promised. But as she thought about it, her heart clenched and she looked away. “But what if he wants to leave me?” she said pathetically.

“Well then,” Chat said, grandly spreading his arms, “you’ll always have me. At your service, My Lady!” He gave an exaggerated bow that looked quite funny from his seated position. 

Marinette punched him lightly in the shoulder. “You _have_ a girlfriend,” she said. 

“And I love her and want to keep her,” Chat Noir replied promptly. “But if she gets sick of me and your guy says goodbye to you, then my time with you has come. Finally!” He winked. 

“I suppose I could give dating you a try,” Marinette teased, getting to her feet. “Dating someone whose identity I don’t know can’t be any more messed up than the relationship I already have.”

But the joke fell flat in her ears, and it was with that thought echoing uncomfortably in her mind that she threw her yoyo over the rooftops and began to fly home.

⁂

When Marinette arrived back at the apartment, she found that Adrien had taken advantage of her absence to go out (_again, dammit_). After transforming back into her civilian clothes, she went to the living room to await his return. As she sat on their second-hand easy chair trying to rehearse what to say, she found herself having to put her face in her hands and take deep breaths. She could _not_ think about what she had to lose, she just had to get through this – rip the bandaid off as fast as possible. If this all went badly, at least she had Chat Noir, she thought grimly. 

It was at that moment that the front door clicked, and Adrien walked into the apartment. Marinette bolted to her feet, her fists clenched. Adrien, who had been smiling as he came in, cocked his head at her expression. 

“Hey Mari, is something wrong?” he said. The pathetically concerned look he gave her as he anticipated her answer stabbed at Marinette’s heart, and she faltered. But she was sick of dancing around this problem for weeks, and she had promised Chat Noir that she would see this through. 

“Adrien, we need to sulk – I mean, talk,” she stuttered, and Adrien’s hangdog look intensified. Marinette took a deep breath... “Have you... lost interest in me?”

Whatever question Adrien had been expecting, it wasn’t that. “No, of course not,” he said, taking a step towards her. “I love you, Marinette. Did I do something to make you think I don’t?”

“It’s just, whenever I come home, you’re not here,” she said. Chat’s accusation of his partner cheating flashed through her mind and she had to steady herself again. _Adrien would never._

“Aww, I hate it when you’re not here, it feels so empty. I’d rather go out and do something than spend my time alone,” Adrien said, and the words rang true – except for all the other weird stuff he had been doing since they moved in together, the bizarre excuses. 

“I know, but – something’s wrong, I can feel it,” Marinette insisted.

“Okay, but what about you?” Adrien accused her. “You go out all the time, even in the middle of the night. It’s enough to make a guy wonder if something fishy’s going on, here!”

Oh, how Marinette wished, wished with all her heart that she could just tell her beloved the truth. Then all this mess could be cleaned up in five minutes and never be worried about again. 

“You _know_ I’m out designing,” she said, her fists clenching again as she willed him to understand. “I can’t help it, I just have to go or I might lose an idea.” 

“Well maybe that’s what I’m out doing too,” Adrien said, folding his arms. “You’re not the only artist around here.” 

“You’re going out to meet photographers to model at 1AM?” Marinette said, mirroring his posture.

“No, I’m going out to _think_!” Adrien snapped. “You’re an artist too. I wish you’d understand. Aren’t we really kinda the same?”

Marinette opened her mouth, ready to retort with something about how modelling and designing were not the same thing at all, when she was struck with a thought so incredible, so insane, so unlikely that she froze. What if they _were_ the same – in more ways that one? No, it wasn’t _really_ possible – was it?

Her mind raced at a thousand miles an hour, putting together puzzle pieces and clues just as it would in the moments between a Lucky Charm’s summoning and a villain’s inevitable defeat. 

Marinette only left the house at patrol time and when akumatised villains appeared. Of course. But Adrien always left the house at those times too. Who would go outside in the middle of an akuma attack – save for _them_ – for Ladybug and Chat Noir? What if he didn’t leave because she left, but because he was going to the same place she was?

Scenes flashed through her mind: Adrien’s fancy cheeses that she never saw him eat – for his kwami, of course! She’d met Plagg before. Adrien, refusing to hold her for longer than a moment before breaking into fits of coughs – because he had to hide that Chat Noir actually did purr when hugged. The mysterious ring that Adrien never took off – obviously, his miraculous!

And then there were the years and years of evidence built up from the span of their careers – Plagg being seen in the College Françoise Dupont, Adrien and Chat Noir’s similar height and hair colour, their similar familial backgrounds, everything. 

Why, oh why hadn’t she seen it before? Years of well-intentioned lies and misdirections to protect his secret identity. There was a quiet voice nagging in her mind, _could it really be possible?_ That the man she loved with all her heart was also the partner she trusted with her life? But the evidence was solid enough that it couldn’t just be ignored. 

“Marinette?” Adrien said, and she shook herself out of her daze, trying to act like she hadn’t just had a crazy, world-shaking revelation. Weeks they’d been living together. Weeks! But she had to get it together and come up with a plan to end this argument and test her hypothesis, before she managed to ruin the best relationship of her life. 

“I can solve this problem,” Marinette announced. Adrien cocked his head in surprise. 

“Go on,” he said. 

“I have a question for you,” she said seriously. “Do you like piña coladas?”

“Uh...” Adrien stared. When she simply waited for him to go on, he answered the question slowly, as if expecting this to be a trick. “I guess they’re okay. You know I’m not much for cocktails. More of a wine guy. Why do you ask?”

Marinette smiled. “I’ll explain everything in 24 hours,” she said, glancing at her watch. “I bet that’ll solve our problem. But if it doesn’t, I’ll think of something else.”

“Well... okay then,” Adrien said, and she revelled in the trust he was placing in her abilities even in the midst of this semi-catastrophe.

⁂

The next day was quiet in terms of supervillain activity, although there was a strange anticipatory mood in the Dupain-Cheng/Agreste household. After work, Adrien kept shooting Marinette glances as if wondering just when she was going to explain her sudden interest in cocktails. For her part, Marinette found herself constantly staring at the clock. So soon she would find out if she was right – _if she was right! _

Finally, the time came for her to transform into Ladybug and slip out of the bathroom window. In a dusky haze she flew over the rooftops of Paris, heading for what was supposed to be a regularly scheduled patrol with Chat Noir, but which would really be one of the defining conversations of the rest of her life. 

For once, Chat Noir made it to their secluded rooftop meeting-place before Ladybug did, probably eager to find out the result of Ladybug’s conversation with her boyfriend. A storm of emotions was swirling around Marinette’s heart, but she knew she only had to keep it together long enough to ask Chat one thing. 

Chat had seen her yoyo catch on the chimney and was watching her swing towards him. As soon as her feet touched the rooftop, she said, “Chaton, do you like piña coladas?” 

For once, she had so baffled and startled him that he could only stare at her in shock. He opened his mouth, then closed it again several times. Finally, he came closer to her, ducking his head as if about to confer a secret. In a loud whisper he exclaimed, “Marinette?!”

Marinette couldn’t help herself. She started to laugh, and then Chat Noir (her own beloved Adrien, her own!) launched himself towards her and spun her around and around and around, kissing every part of her face he could reach. Her nose, her chin, her cheeks, her forehead, her lips, even her mask and her hair were the target of Adrien’s kisses, all while Marinette continued to laugh so hard she could barely breathe. 

As she regained control over herself, joy still surging through her veins, Adrien began to slow his spins until both of her feet were on the ground again. He was laughing now too, yet still determinedly kissing her. With a final burst of laughter, Ladybug took Chat Noir’s face in hers and kissed him soundly on the lips. 

⁂

For the first time in their lives, Tikki and Plagg were able to eat dinner together with Marinette and Adrien – or at least, to float by the table and watch them flutter their eyelashes and smile dopily at each other, flush with the new understanding between them.

“Disgusting,” said Plagg. “Absolutely disgusting.”

“Oh hush,” Tikki said. “I think they’re adorable. At least they’re not pining anymore, right?”

Marinette leaned over and gave Adrien a kiss, and Plagg mimed a puking motion. “I’m out of here,” he said, retreating to the safety of the currently unoccupied bedroom. With a sigh, Tikki followed him, just to make sure he stayed out of trouble.

Back at the table, Adrien and Marinette were holding hands, which made eating rather difficult. 

“Don’t get me wrong, My Lady, the way you solved this problem was amazing. Just like always,” Adrien was saying. “But I have a question. I still don’t understand what was with the piña coladas.”

Marinette smiled and began to sing. 

_“I was tired of my lady, we’d been together too long…”_

**Author's Note:**

> Referenced song: [Escape (The Piña Colada Song)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xb6l38eP-4w) by Rupert Holmes.  
The lyrics: [here at azlyrics](https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/rupertholmes/escapethepiacoladasong.html).  
The version Marinette would be familiar with is, of course, [Chanson du Piña Colada](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBTZkZeB4Vg) by Dino L'Espérance, which is a fantastic French translation of the original. 
> 
> The last Miraculous Ladybug fic I posted got 0 comments despite having kudos, which was kinda disheartening ^^; If you liked this story please consider commenting!  
EDIT: omg, thank you so much!! This fic got more comments than I've ever got on a one shot before. You guys absolutely made my day. Some kind soul even went back and put a comment on the other fic that didn't have any. I guess the Miraculous Ladybug fandom does care after all <333 Thank you!


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